Method of extracting mositure from wet laundry batches



ug. 3, 1954 P. E. wHlTTlNGToN l v METHOD oF EXTRACTING MOISTURE FROM WET LAUNDRY BATCHES Filed May 8, 1950 Patented Aug. 3, 1954 UNITED STATES OFFICE METHOD OF EXTRACTING MOISTURE FROM WET LAUNDRY BATCHES (Granted under Title 35, U. S. Code (1952),

sec. 266) 3 Claims.

The invention described herein, ii patented, may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes, without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to clothes wringers and the like, and has for its primary object to provide a device which may be used with any commercial wringer or extractor of the cylinder and plunger type so as to equalize the pressure applied to the batch of clothes being operated upon.

In extracting water from a batch of washed clothing considerable difficulty has been encountered with the pressure type of extractor due to the fact that voids or soft spots are often present in the batch when it is placed in the compressor. As a result, certain portions of the wash retain too much moisture after the pressing operation, thereby entailing substantial loss oi time in the ironing operation. Attempts have been made heretofore to overcome this defect in present extractors by employing a piston having an operative face of iiexible material which is normally held in distended position by a fluid such as air or water. However, such devices are defective to the extent that they only contact the surface ci the batch of clothing, they are an integral part of the mechanism and therefore are incapable of use in a dierent type of extractor, and they are usually exposed to a possible pinching action between the cylinder and plunger and when such action occurs the equalizers effectiveness is destroyed and a replacement is required which necessitates dismantling the apparatus, removing the flexible piston face, installinga new one and reassembling the ape paratus.

It is an object of the present invention therefore to provide a pressure equalizer which may be intimately associated with the batch of clothing and automatically conform to pressure contours within the load so that all surfaces of the equalizer are effective in transmitting maximum pressures to voids or soft spots in the batch.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a distensible equalizer which is a separate unit in itself and may be inserted in a batch of clothing prior to the placement of the batch in an extractor, and consequently may be employed in any extractor of the cylinder and plunger type.

A still further object of the invention resides in the provision of a pressure equalizer which, due to the fact that all its surfaces are eiiective, may be made suiciently small to prevent liability of contact with the Working parts of the extractor, and thus eliminate any possibility of destruction by pinching action.

Another object of the invention consists in a method of use of the equalizer so that the highest degree of eiectiveness is provided.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which,

Figure l is a longitudinal sectional View, parts being broken away, through a hydraulic type of commercial extractor showing the pressure equalizer or the present invention disposed at approximately the center of a batch of wet laundry; and Figures 2 and 3 are perspective views of two different designs of pressure equalizers.

For the purpose of illustrating the method of using the pressure equalizer of the present in vention there is shown on the drawings a cylinder and plunger type of extractor, such as shown in Berger Patents Nos. 2,570,992 and 2,586,292, issued October 7, 1951 and February 19, 1952, respectively, and which is hydraulically operated. In this type of extractor it is usual to locate the plunger below the floor of the laundry room, and such a plunger, indicated by the numeral I, is disposed in a casing 2 situated below the licor of base 3.

The frame of the particular extractor shown, which forms no part of the present invention, is indicated generally by the numeral l5 and is provided with a lateral opening to permit the entrance of a carriage ii into alignmentV with the plunger i. This carriage is mounted on wheels 6 and is usually provided with a loose bottom 'i which is freely supported on ledges 8 fixed on the interior of the carriage 5 and adapted to be raised and lowered during the operation of the plunger I. The carriage is also provided with an outwardly projecting stop 5 which serves to limit the downward movement of a closure to be later described. At the top of the extractor is a platen or the like 9 against which the wet laundry is compressed by the plunger I and bottom i, and the upper end of the frame is provided with a lateral opening I0 through which the batch of laundry is removed after the water has been extracted. This opening Il! is normally closed by vertically reciprocal closure I I, as shown in dotted outline in Patent No. 2,570,092, and a plunger I2 is disposed directly opposite the opening it for the purpose of ejecting the batch after it has been operated upon and the closure II raised.

The pressure equalizer of the present invention comprises a container l5 (Figure 2) which is shown as of spherical form. In the present illustration the sphere is formed of upper and lower sections joined by a seam l5. The container is preferably formed of rubber or other elastic material and is completely filled With Water or other incompressible liquid prior to being permanently sealed. The rubber is sufciently thin as to permit it to be stretched under pressures such as might be created in a clothes Wringer of this type. In Figure 3 the pressure equalizer is indicated by numeral l? and differs from the form shown in Figure 2 in that it is of substantially disk-like form.

In the operation of the invention the pressure equalizer is placed Within the body of the batch of Wet laundry, as indicated in Figure l. Thereafter the carriage 9 with the batch of laundry and the pressure equalizer is moved into alignment with the plunger i, and the plunger l is thereafter operated to raise the movable bottom 1 of the container and force the batch upwardly against the platen 9 in the usual manner. In this operation, if there are any voids or soft spots within the laundry batch the incompressible liquid within the container will be automatically forced toward such weak spot or void, and this movement will be permitted by reason of the flexibility and elasticity of the wall of the container i5. By reason of this automatic distortion of the pressure equalizer to compensate for any void or weak spot Within the batch, it will be apparent that the pressure applied to the batch by the plunger i will be equalized so as to remove water from the batch in a uniiiorm manner and thereby eliminate the possibility of certain parts of the batch being unduly moist when the batch is removed from the extractor.

It will be noted that the pressure equalizer of the present invention is an entirely separate and distinct unit Wholly unconnected with the eX- tractor itself, and consequently can be placed at the most eiective position with respect to the batch of laundry, namely, adjacent the center thereof. When so placed, it will be obvious that the pressure equalizer is eilective throughout its entire circumference so that it may be flexed or distended in any direction so as to compensate for voids and the like within the laundry batch,

Moreover, by reason or" the fact that the pressure equalizer may be placed interiorly of the batch itself and thereby rendered highly eiective in seeking out sof t spots and the like, the size of the equalizer may be smaller than it would otherwise be, that is, if it merely contacted the surface at one end of the batch, for instance, if it was in the form of an inilatecl diaphragm covering the surface of the plunger or the platen. It should also be noted that by reason of the transverse dimension of the equalizer being substantially less than that of the interior of the extractor, there is no possibility of the extractor being pinched or otherwise mutilated by contact with the meta-l parts of the extractor itself.

In accordance with the patent statutes, I have described what I now consider to be a preferred form of the pressure equalizer and the method of uniformly removing moisture from a laundry batch, but it is to be understood that various changes may be made in the structure of the pressure equalizer and the steps of the method Without departing from the spirit of the invention,

I claim:

1. The method of extracting moisture from a ivet laundry batch which comprises, placing an imperforated clistensible liquid-lled container in the midst of the batch, then placing the batch in an extractor of the cylinder and plunger type, and setting the plunger in operation.

2. The method of extracting moisture from a wet laundry batch which comprises, placing the batch in a conventional extractor, placing an imperforate iiexible container of elastic material filled with a liquid in the midst of the batch,l and thereafter operating the conventional eX- tractor to apply pressure to the batch.

3. The method of extracting moisture from a wet laundry batch which comprises, placing the batch in a conventional extractor, placing an imperorate distensible liquid-lled container in the midst of the batch, and causing pressure to be applied to the batch throughout its entire surface.

References Cited in the ile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 687,248 Miller Nov. 26, 1901 696,992 Miller Apr. 8, 1902 1,530,820 Evans et al Mar. 24, 1925 1,671,913 Troy May 29, 1928 l,'738,326 Smith Dec. 3, 1929 1,918,793 Baker July 18, 1933 2,059,494 Burry Aug. 11, 1936 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 612,161 Germany Apr. 15, 1935 

